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Working from home – part 2

02 Feb 2014

Building a business case for your new employer

If you’re applying for, or have been offered, a new job and you’d like to discuss the option of working from home with your employer, you’re more likely to succeed if you can explain what’s in it for them. So it’s worth building a clear business case to support your conversation.

Here are some key points that you should include about your personal situation:

Look at the different elements of your new role and identify those that would particularly suit working from home.

Set out the number of days you would ideally like to spend working from home and explain why that balance would be effective, both for you and your organisation.

Explain how you plan to stay in touch with the rest of the team when you’re out of the office and how technology could support you.

Suggest a trial period after which both sides can review the effectiveness of the set up.

And here are some more general business benefits that could support your request:

Allowing remote working can reduce an organisation’s office space, carbon footprint and business overheads.

A survey by BT found that the productivity of flexible workers (which includes those who work from home) increased by 30%.

In a survey by the CIPD in 2012, 75% of employers said that flexible working had a positive effect on retention and 73% said it improved staff motivation.

And given that there are around 8.7 million people in the UK who aren’t currently working flexibly but would like to, being prepared to be flexible about working from home is likely to widen their talent pool when recruiting too.

Finally – be prepared to compromise to get your plans off the ground. You and your new employer may have different ideas about the best way to balance your time in and out of the office; and you don’t yet have a track record with them. If you start small, and make a success of it, you’re more likely to be able to expand it at a later date.